The Little Scroll - Revelation 10:1-11
INTRODUCTION:
We have been away from the book of Revelation for five weeks, but today we return to where we left off. So far in our study of Revelation, the apostle John in chapter one saw a vision of the resurrected, glorified and exalted Lord Jesus Christ. In this vision John was commanded to write three things: First, he was to write the things which he had seen, which was the vision of Jesus Christ, risen and glorified. Second, he was to write the things which are, this is the contents of chapters 2 and 3 and the messages of the Lord Jesus to the seven churches in Asia, that represent the churches of all time. Third, John was to write the things that will take place after these things, the contents of chapters 4-22 which is those things that will take place after the church age is ended, the consummation of all things. So far, we have covered chapters 4-9 of this third section which included the seven-sealed scroll that only Jesus Christ could break the seals to open the scroll. In the breaking of the seals the first seven judgments upon the earth were released, the seventh seal brought forth the seven trumpet judgments, we have looked at the first six of the trumpet judgments, the last three being also called the woe judgments.
This morning we are going to be in chapter 10. Chapter 10:1-11:13 is an interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments, just as there was an interlude between the sixth and seventh seal judgments. John MacArthur writes, “These interludes encourage God’s people in the midst of the fury and horror of divine judgment. During the interludes God comforts His people with the knowledge that He has not forgotten them, and they will ultimately be victorious.”[1] This morning we will look at the first part of this interlude in chapter 10. Let’s pray and then get into God’s Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 10:1-11 our passage for this morning. These interludes are a chance for us to catch our breath before we read about more judgment. Please stand if you are able for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Revelation 10:1-11,
“I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land; and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.’ Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets. Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, ‘Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.’ So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, ‘Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’ I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And they said to me, ‘You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.’” (Revelation 10:1–11, NASB95)[2]
ANOTHER ANGEL (Revelation 10:1-3)
John begins this interlude with the words “I saw…” letting us know that he has moved from the vision of the trumpets for a time, and he is receiving another vision and in this vision he is on the earth. He saw another strong angel coming down from heaven, this angel is distinct from the seven angels that are blowing the seven trumpets.
The description that John gives of this angel when compared with the description John gave of the risen, glorified Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 1:12-17 have some similarities and this has caused some to conclude that this angel is Jesus Christ. I do not think that this conclusion is correct for several reasons: (1) The Greek word for “another” means “another of the same kind” either referring to the angels blowing the trumpets or the other “strong angel” that John saw in chapter 5 who cried out in a loud voice asking who was worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. (2) Whenever Jesus Christ appears in the book of Revelation, John makes sure we know who He is by giving Him an unmistakable title, like Son of man in chapter one, and the Lamb that was slain. (3) Other strong angels appear in Revelation like the one I already mentioned in 5:2, but also in 18:21. (4) Jesus Christ could not take the action of verses 5-6 raising His right hand and swearing by Him who lives forever and ever and is the Creator of all things. Since He is God, Jesus Christ would swear by Himself. (5) This angel John saw was descending from heaven down to earth. To say that this angel is Jesus Christ you must add another coming of Christ to the earth. John is describing an angel for us.
John gives us a description of this powerful angel that he saw, first he describes the amazing attire of this angel, he says he was wearing a cloud for his clothing. This robe of cloud symbolizes this angel’s power and that fact that he comes bringing judgment. Clouds are often associated with the second coming of Christ in judgment.
John also saw the rainbow upon his head, like a multi-colored turban which reflects his glorious splendor, as he radiates with the glory of God. While the cloud represents judgment, the rainbow symbolizes God’s covenant mercy in the midst of judgment. After the worldwide flood, God gave the rainbow as the sign of His promise to never again destroy the world by water. The rainbow which is upon this angel’s head will be the reassurance of God’s mercy in the midst of coming judgments.
John describes the angel’s face as being like the sun, it was blazing with God’s glory and lit up the earth like the sun. This brightness came from being in the presence of God, it is a reflection of God’s glory. John ends by describing the angel’s feet as pillars of fire, firm, stable, immovable pillars of fire. This represents the unbending holiness of this angel to carrying out his judgment, to carry out his mission from God.
John tells us that this angel holds in his hand a little open book, my version says, in Greek it is a little scroll, this little scroll is not sealed like the one in chapter 5, this little scroll is open to be read. This scroll represents the Word of God and the rest of the judgments that were to come on the earth.
Then John tells us that as this angel reaches the earth he plants one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, this shows us the massive size of this angel from John’s perspective. This angel by doing this is showing God’s sovereign authority over the entire earth to judge it, that the ruler of this present age will soon be disposed as God takes back the earth which rightfully belongs to Him. This action by this angel symbolically anticipates the coming judgments of the seventh trumpet and the seven bowl judgments that will be poured out on all the earth.
Next we read that this angel “…cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.” (Revelation 10:3a, NASB95)[3] His loud cry reflects the authority and power of Almighty God. Often the Old Testament prophets spoke of the Lord roaring in judgment. At the loud cry of this powerful angel it says that the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. As we have already learned in this book, the number 7 is the number of completeness and perfection. Thunder is also a herald of judgment in Scripture, out of the throne of judgment that John saw in chapter 4 came flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. John says that these seven peals of thunder have voices which spoke something that John understood, but the text does not reveal what they said.
SEVEN THUNDERS SEALED (Revelation 10:4)
John was about to record for us what the seven thunders had spoken, John had been recording all that he saw and heard as Jesus had commanded him to do in chapter 1, verse 19 and so he was going to write down what the thunders had spoken, but a voice from heaven spoke to him before he began to write and told him to seal up the words of the thunders and do not write them. We are not told whose voice spoke to John from heaven, whoever it was it was clear to John that the command was from God. We are not given the reason that John was told to seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder had spoken, and we are not given any indication as to what they communicated. Many people want to speculate what the thunders said, but any speculation as to what they communicated is pointless. If God wanted us to know what was said he would have allowed John to record it. The words of the seven thunders are the only words in the book of Revelation that are sealed, reserved for the day when they are fulfilled.
DELAY NO LONGER (Revelation 10:5-7)
As John returns his gaze to the angel who is standing with one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, he watches as this powerful angel solemnly raises his right hand to show that he is going to make a solemn vow. To take this type of vow is to acknowledge before God that the one taking the vow is going to speak the truth, the whole truth. This vow that the angel was about to take indicated that what was about to be spoken was of utmost importance and truthfulness.
The angel swore his vow in the name of “Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it.” (Revelation 10:6, NASB95)[4] This description of God stresses that He is eternal, and it stresses that He is the Creator of everything and because He is the Creator He has sovereign power in and over all creation. It also stresses that because He created it, it belongs to Him and He has the sovereign right to bring judgment upon it.
After swearing in the name of the eternal Creator God the angel gives us the contents of his oath which is that there will be delay no longer. The martyrs under the throne in the fifth seal had asked, “How long?” The prayers of all the saints going up before God from the altar of incense in chapter 8:3-5 praying for God’s kingdom to come are answered in the oath of the angel that “there will be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound…” (Revelation 10:6b-7, NASB95)[5] This simply means that the judgment of the seventh trumpet is about to come and the fact that the angel says “in the days” in plural indicates that this is not a single event, but a period of time. This period of time includes the seven bowl judgments which will require some weeks or months to be completed. The sounding of the seventh trumpet will bring the final judgment that is seen in the bowls of fury poured out on the earth. The time of God’s patience has come to an end, the time for His final acts of judgment have come. The angel says that at the sounding of the seventh trumpet “the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.” (Revelation 10:7b, NASB95)[6] When we read of the mystery of God in the Bible it refers to truths that God has hidden and will reveal in His time. Many mysteries of God are revealed in the New Testament, the mystery that is spoken of here is what Paul refers to in Ephesians 1:10 as the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In other words, it is the consummation of all things, the consummation of God’s plan in bringing the glorious kingdom in Christ to fulfillment. This includes the millennial kingdom of Christ on this earth at the end of the Tribulation, but ultimately it is the creation of the new heavens and the new earth and the eternal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ over His creation. This consummation of God’s plan was revealed to the Old Testament prophets, but the full disclosure of this mystery is revealed in the book of Revelation. For the believers living at that time on the earth, in a world overrun by demons and experiencing unequaled natural disasters, the understanding, the knowledge that God’s glorious plan is on schedule will bring great comfort and encouragement and hope in the midst of judgment.
THE WORD OF GOD (Revelation 10:8-11)
At this point John again hears the voice from heaven that he had heard earlier that had told him to seal up the words of the seven thunders. This time the voice speaks another command to John and John is to become an active participant in this vision. He is told to go and take the little scroll that is laying open in the hand of the angel who is standing with one foot on the sea and one foot on the land.
John obeys and approaches the angel and tells the angel to give him the little scroll. The angel then gives John further instructions which graphically illustrate for us the proper response of a believer to God’s impending judgment and consummation of all things. John is told by the angel to take the little scroll and eat it, the angel says it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. John obediently takes the scroll and eats it and in his mouth it is sweet as honey, but it makes his stomach bitter. This eating of a scroll had happened before, God had given the prophet Ezekiel a scroll full of lamentations, mourning and woe and he was to eat it and go to the house of Israel and speak the Word of God to them.
Both Ezekiel and John in eating the scrolls symbolize for us the absorbing and assimilating of God’s Word. In other words, by eating the scroll John was taking the Word of God and making it apart of himself. Upon taking in the divine words concerning the remaining judgments as the Lord took possession of the universe, he found the words both sweet as honey and bitter. John found them sweet, because like all believers should be, John wanted the Lord to carry out His judgment on the wicked and ungodly and to take back the earth that is rightfully His and be exalted and glorified as he deserves. But at the same time came the realization of the terrible doom that is awaiting those who have rejected Christ, and this turns the initial taste of sweetness into bitterness.
John was told that what he had eaten had to be shared, he must prophesy again concerning many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. So John is commissioned a second time to write the rest of the prophecies of the end times that God is about to reveal to him, which he had just eaten on the scroll. What he was about to record would be more devastating than anything that had already been revealed, and more glorious. John was called upon to faithfully record all the truth that he was about to see and hear. These prophecies would relate to everyone everywhere. John was to warn the world of all the bitter judgments coming upon the world because of their rejection of Jesus Christ.
Because John was faithful in his calling, sinners everywhere can know what is coming for the unrepentant because he recorded these prophecies. While judgment is at this time restrained, a future day is coming when the seventh angel will sound his trumpet and the power of sin will be broken, the freedom of Satan and his demons on the earth will come to an end, godless men will be judged, and the King of kings will come in victory and triumph!
CONCLUSION:
All who love the Lord Jesus Christ, who have put their faith in His finished work on the cross and received His forgiveness, can relate to this bittersweet experience of John. As believers we long for Christ to return in glory, for Satan to be finally destroyed, and the glorious kingdom of our Lord to be set up on earth, in which Jesus Christ will rule in righteousness and glory while establishing in the world righteousness, truth, justice, and peace. But at the same time that we long of this, we understand the bitter truth that this means judgment and death for those who have refused to repent and believe in Christ’s death for their sins, that He was buried and rose three days later from the dead triumphing forever over death and sin for us. So what can we do?
Like John we need to feed on the Word of God, we need to take it in and make it a part of us so that we can share it with those who have not believed in Christ for salvation. Our Scripture reading this morning was from 2 Timothy 3 and it tells us that Scripture is God breathed, it is the very words of God and it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. But it is not profitable if we are not reading it, if we are not feeding on it and making it a part of us. I cannot stress to you how important it is that you spend time daily in the Word of God and reading the Daily Bread or the Days of Praise is not enough if you want the very Words of God to be profitable in your life, if you want to be able to share the very Words of God with those who do not know Christ. When we spend time in the Word of God it teaches us about God, about ourselves, about sharing Christ with others, it points out to us areas in our life that are sin and it shows us how to correct those areas, it trains us in righteousness, as we feed on God’s Word we become more like Christ, His righteousness imputed to us becomes visible to those around us, it prepares us to live in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
[1]MacArthur, John, Because the Time is Near. Chicago, IL : Moody Publishers, 2007
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995